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AP English/Comp. Lit. > Vocab Words > Flashcards

Vocab Words Flashcards

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Proverbs and Idioms flashcards
1
Q

Allegory

A

A prose or poetic narrative in which the characters, behavior, and even setting demonstrates multiple levels of meaning

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2
Q

Alliteration

A

Repetition of a similar initial sound usually consonants

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3
Q

Allusion

A

A reference to literary or historical event, person, place.

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4
Q

Anapestic

A

Metric foot with two unstressed followed by one stressed

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5
Q

Anaphora

A

Regular repetition of same word or phrase at the beginning. ( I have a dream)

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6
Q

Anecdote

A

A brief story or tale told by a character in a piece of lit

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7
Q

Antagonist

A

Any force that is in opposition of the main character

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8
Q

Antithesis

A

The juxtaposition of sharply contrasting ideas in balanced or parallel words

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9
Q

Apostrophe

A

An address or invocation to something inanimate

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10
Q

Archetype

A

Recurrent designs, patterns of actions, character types, themes or images

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11
Q

Assonance

A

A repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds

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12
Q

Asyndeton

A

A style in which conjunctions are omitted (I came I saw I conquered)

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13
Q

Attitude

A

The sense expressed by the tone of voice and the mood

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14
Q

Ballad

A

A narrative poem that is meant to be sung

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15
Q

Ballad stanza

A

A common stanza form consisting of quatrain that has four and three beat lines

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16
Q

Blank verse

A

Verse form that most resembles common speech

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17
Q

Caesura

A

A pause in a line of verse

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18
Q

Caricature

A

A depiction of a characters features in exaggeration

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19
Q

Chiasmus

A

Terms are reversed in parallel lines (pleasures a sin and sins a pleasure)

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20
Q

Colloquial

A

Ordinary language the vernacular

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21
Q

Conceit

A

Comparison of two unlikely things. Extended metaphor

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22
Q

Connotation

A

What is suggested by a word, apart from what it describes (sweet,gay)

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23
Q

Consonance

A

Repetition of two or more consonance

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24
Q

Couplet

A

Two rhyming lines of iambic pentameter that together present a single idea or connection.

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25
Q

Dactylic

A

A metric foot in poetry that consists of two stressed and one unstressed syllable

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26
Q

Denotation

A

A direct and specific meaning often Referred to as dictionary meaning of word.

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27
Q

Dialect

A

The language and speech of specific region or area

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28
Q

Diction

A

The specific word choice an author uses to persuade or convey tone, purpose, or effect.

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29
Q

Dramatic monologue

A

A monologue spoke to an imaginary audience

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30
Q

Elegy

A

A poem written about someone’s death

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31
Q

Enjambment

A

A continuation of a sentence from one line to another.

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32
Q

Epic

A

A poem that celebrates heroes or heroines

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33
Q

Exposition

A

Sets the scene and introduces the characters

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34
Q

Extended metaphor

A

A detailed and complex metaphor that extends over a long section of a work

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35
Q

Fable

A

A legend for a short moral story often using animals as characters

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36
Q

Falling action

A

The part of plot structure in which the complications of the rising action are untangled

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37
Q

Farce

A

A scene that is characterized by broad humor wild antics and often slapstick and physical humor

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38
Q

Foreshadowing

A

A hint of the future before hand

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39
Q

Formal diction

A

Language that is lofty dignified and impersonal

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40
Q

Flashback

A

Retrospection where an earlier event is inserted into the normal chronology of the narrative

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41
Q

Free verse

A

Poetry that is characterized by varying line lengths, lack of traditional meter and non-rhyming lines

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42
Q

Genre

A

A type or class of literature such as epic or narrative or poetry or belles letters

43
Q

Hyperbole

A

Overstatement characterized by exaggerated language. Like I am starving

44
Q

Iambic

A

A metric foot in poetry that consist of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable

45
Q

Imagery

A

Broadly defined any sensory detail or evocation in a work more narrowly the use of figurative language to evoke a feeling to call to mind an idea or to describe an object

46
Q

Informal diction

A

Language that is not as lofty or impersonal as formal diction

47
Q

In Medias res

A

Opening a story in the middle of the action

48
Q

Irony

A

A situation or statement characterized by significant difference between what is expected or understood and what actually happens or is meant

49
Q

Jargon

A

Specialized or technical language of a trade profession or similar group

50
Q

Juxtaposition

A

The location of one thing as being adjacent or juxtaposed with another

51
Q

Limited point of view

A

A perspective confined to a single character

52
Q

Litote

A

A figure of speech that emphasizes it’s subject by conscious understatement

53
Q

Loose sentence

A

A sentence grammatically complete and usually stating its main idea before the end

54
Q

Lyric

A

Originally designated poems meant to be sung to the accompaniment of A lyre

55
Q

Message

A

A misleading term for theme, the central idea or statement of a story

56
Q

Metaphor

A

One thing pictured as if it were something else

57
Q

Meter

A

The more or less regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry

58
Q

Metonymy

A

A figure of speech in which an attribute or commonly associated feature is used to name or designate something For example the White House announced today Or the pen is mightier than the sword

59
Q

Mood

A

A feeling or ambience resulting from the tone of a piece as well as the writers attitude and point of view

60
Q

Motif

A

A recurrent device formula or situation that often serves as a signal for the appearance of a character or event

61
Q

Narrative structure

A

A textual organization based on sequences of connected events usually presented in a straightforward chronological framework

62
Q

Narrator

A

The character who tells the story

63
Q

Occasional poem

A

A poem written about or for a specific occasion public or private

64
Q

Ode

A

A lyric poem that is somewhat serious in subject and treatment elevated in style and sometimes uses elaborate stanza structure

65
Q

Omniscient point of view

A

Also called unlimited focus a perspective that could be seen from one character then another’s or can be moved in or out of the mind of any character at any time

66
Q

Onomatopoeia

A

A word capturing or approximating the sound of what it describes for example buzz bam

67
Q

Overstatement

A

Exaggerated language

68
Q

Oxymoron

A

A figure of speech that combines two contradictory elements For example jumbo shrimp

69
Q

Parable

A

A short fiction that illustrates an explicit moral lesson through the use of a analogy. For example it is often found in the Bible

70
Q

Paradox

A

A statement that seems contradictory but may actually be true for example fight for peace

71
Q

Parallel structure

A

The use of similar forms in writing for nouns, verbs, phrases, or thoughts. for example Jane likes reading writing and skiing

72
Q

Parody

A

A work that imitates another work for comic effect by exaggerating the style and changing the content of the original

73
Q

Pastoral

A

A work that describes the simple life of countryfolk

74
Q

Periodic sentence

A

A sentence which is not grammatically complete until the end

75
Q

Persona

A

The voice or figure of the author who tells and structures the story and who may or may not share the values of the actual character

76
Q

Personification

A

Giving a nonhuman object human qualities

77
Q

Petrarchan sonnet

A

A sonnet form that divides the poem into one section of eight lines and a second section of six lines

78
Q

Plot

A

The arrangement of the narration based on the cause effect relationship of the events

79
Q

Protagonist

A

The main character in the work you may or may not be Heroic

80
Q

Quitrain

A

A poetic stanza of four lines

81
Q

Realism

A

The practice in literature of attempting to describe nature and life without idealization and with attention to detail

82
Q

Refrain

A

A repeated stanza or line in a poem or song

83
Q

Rising action

A

The development of action in a work usually at the beginning

84
Q

Rhetorical question

A

A question that is asked simply for stylistic affect and is not expected to be answered

85
Q

Rhyme

A

The repetition of the same or similar sounds most often at the ends of lines

86
Q

Rhythm

A

The modulation of weak and strong elements in the flow of speech

87
Q

Sarcasm

A

A form of verbal irony in which apparent praise is actually harshly or bitterly critical

88
Q

Satire

A

A literary work that holds up human failings to ridicule and censure

89
Q

Scansion

A

The analysis of verse to show it’s meter

90
Q

Setting

A

The time and place of the action in a story poem or play

91
Q

Shakespearean sonnet

A

Also called an English sonnet a sonnet form that divides the poem into three units of four lines each and a final unit of two lines

92
Q

Shaped verse

A

Another name for concrete poetry poetry that is shaped to look like an object

93
Q

Simile

A

direct explicit comparison of one thing to another

94
Q

Soliloquy

A

A monologue in which the character and they play is alone and speaking only to himself or herself

95
Q

Speaker

A

The person not necessarily the author who is the voice of a poem

96
Q

Stanza

A

A section of a poem Demarcated by extra line spacing

97
Q

Stereotype

A

A characterization based on conscious or unconscious assumptions that some one aspect such as gender age Ethnic or national identity religion occupation marital status and so on are predictably accompanied by certain character traits actions even values

98
Q

Stock character

A

One who appears in a number of stories or plays such as the cruel stepmother

99
Q

Structure

A

The organization or arrangement of the various elements in a work

100
Q

Style

A

A distinctive manner of expression the author expresses this through diction rhythm imagery and so on

101
Q

Symbolism

A

Something that figuratively represents something else

102
Q

Synecdoche

A

When a part is used to signify a whole for example all hands on deck

103
Q

Syntax

A

The way words are put together to form phrases clauses and sentences

AP English/Comp. Lit. (1 decks)

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